MP Turek Threatens To Sue Pavel, Demanding Apology Over Rejected Cabinet Nomination

MP Filip Turek (Motorists) will file a lawsuit against President Petr Pavel for protection of personality rights and demand an apology, he announced over the weekend, as he is deeply offended by the reasons given by Pavel to explain why he refused to appoint Turek as environment minister.

In a letter addressed to Babis on Friday, Pavel stated that Turek had repeatedly shown a lack of respect for the Czech legal system. The frequency, intensity, and long-term nature of Turek’s poor behavior indicated that in his case these are not one-off excesses due to youthful recklessness, Pavel wrote.

He said he was prepared to cooperate with Babis on filling the remaining ministerial position.

The Motorists originally wanted Turek to become foreign minister, but following strong reservations from the president they nominated him for environment minister, as an attempted compromise. For the time being, Foreign Minister Petr Macinka, leader of the Motorists, is simultaneously in charge of the Environment Ministry.

“His reasoning deeply affects me,” Turek told reporters during Friday’s visit to Ukraine, where he was accompanying Macinka. “In the coming days, I will file a lawsuit for protection of personality rights and demand that the president apologize to me.”

On the return journey from Ukraine, Macinka told journalists that Pavel should apologize to Turek for the reasons he gave. “I am not surprised that Filip Turek is pursuing a personal lawsuit. He will try to get the court to order the president to apologize to him, because the president probably should apologize to him. He has good reason to do so,” he said.

In response to reports of the planned lawsuit, the Presidential Office told Czech Television that it is not yet clear what Turek intends to sue the president for, and so it will wait for details.

On a CNN Prima News TV discussion programme yesterday, Macinka said the Motorists would take further steps in the dispute with Pavel, but he did not want to specify them. “We will try to put the President in a constitutional situation in which he would understand that his fight for the Ministry of the Environment does not make much sense,” he said.

Again ruling out a power division lawsuit, Macinka said that government formation and constitutional matters concerning the division of powers should be decided by lawmakers, not judges. “Parliament should simply decide by a constitutional majority that the president has such powers, the prime minister has such powers, parliament has such powers, and so on,” he said.

ANO deputy chair Alena Schillerova told a Czech Television discussion programme yesterday that the Coalition Council will discuss Turek’s lawsuit on Monday. She questioned whether Turek’s lawsuit would have a chance of success, given that a rejected candidate for minister must, as a public figure, tolerate a higher degree of criticism.

Former finance minister Zbynek Stanjura (ODS) said on the same programme that Turek’s lawsuit had no chance.

According to a recent STEM poll for CNN Prima News, 21% of people want Turek to become environment minister. Another 21% of respondents said Turek should remain a regular member of parliament, while 36% would like him to leave politics. 17% were unable to express an opinion, and 5% did not know Turek, according to a survey carried out on nearly 1,100 respondents and published on Friday.

Turek has long faced criticism for prolific racist and homophobic posts on social media. He has apologized for some of his statements, while denying authorship of others. He has also received negative scrutiny over his property declarations, and reports that he threatened an employee of the Saudi Arabian embassy years ago.

In his letter, Pavel stated that he must protect fundamental constitutional values, including the rejection of totalitarian and authoritarian ideologies and worldviews. In Turek’s case, there are a number of circumstances which, taken together, reasonably call into question his loyalty to the fundamental values of the constitutional order, Pavel argued.

“In [Turek’s] various statements and actions, he repeatedly adored, or at least downplayed, one of the worst totalitarian regimes of the 20th century, Nazi Germany,” Pavel said.

In other statements, Turek seriously questioned the dignity and equality of women and members of various minorities, and downplayed violent acts of hatred, including those committed against young children, Pavel said. According to him, the Motorists’ candidate also repeatedly showed a lack of respect for the rules, which cannot be explained as one-off excesses.

Babis’s government consists of the election winners ANO and two small far-right parties: the Motorists and Freedom and Direct Democracy (SPD). Together they command 108 votes in the 200-seat Chamber of Deputies. The President appointed all ministerial candidates except Turek in mid-December.

Source: Brno Daily